


Look Out For Mister Stork

by blue_sweater



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Cute, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Idk what to tag this as, Unplanned Pregnancy, she preeeeegnant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1783063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_sweater/pseuds/blue_sweater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pregnancy: the final frontier. These are the tales of Darcy Lewis. Her nine-month mission: to bring Captain America's offspring into the world, to let overly-excited daddy-to-be Steve take care of her, to boldly grow an incredible baby bump and get annoyed at people for touching it without permission.</p>
<p>(A collection of drabbles about their relationship and adventures in pregnancy.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Duck and Cover with a Baby Bump

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I had this thought that Steve would be so gosh darn excited if he found out Darcy was pregnant and I went with it. I make no apologies and I have no regrets.  
> The title is taken from the song from Dumbo because I'm a sentimental piece of shit.
> 
> If you have an idea or a prompt for me to do with pregnant!Darcy, lemme know and I might have a go at writing it!

It had been almost five months since he’d seen her. The last time they had spoken, it was on the phone, and she was explaining why she had to make the move to Seattle, talking about the project Maria had asked her to help with, that she’d be gone before he got back from his mission. And she’d told him she was sorry, real sorry, and he’d believed her because he could hear the way her voice cracked and he told her it was alright, no harm done. And then they had said goodbye.

He was a little wounded but he knew it wasn’t his fault, and Clint had pointed out that unless he and Darcy were able to work together like Tony and Pepper, or Jane and Thor, the relationship probably wouldn’t have lasted. They never did, not with their line of business. Steve had nodded, said again, “No harm done.” They had only been going out for a little while and they hadn’t really got to know each other that well yet. He liked Darcy, he liked her a lot, but he had his responsibilities and she had hers.

It wasn’t personal. No harm done.

And then one night he had to stop over on the west coast. There was some sort of conference that was being targeted by a terrorist group and Steve was sent over. He sorted the problem in record time, and then he had a day to himself.

He didn’t call her straight away, deciding instead to hit the streets, see the sights, get lunch. He’d never been to Seattle and he was keen to have a look around. Besides, Darcy probably wouldn’t be awake until much later in the day, and if they were going to meet up it would be on her terms.

As he was crossing the street in the city, he thought he saw somebody who looked like Darcy. Scratch that, it was Darcy. She was wearing her glasses which meant she was getting lazy with her contacts again, and her hair was being swept up into the wind. She looked tired. Darcy spotted him, too, but when she did her eyes went huge and she looked like she’d just seen a ghost. He frowned, but then he noticed it.

She was pregnant.

He blinked, and then she had turned on her heel and was making quickly for the opposite direction. Steve tried to ignore his shock and began to chase after her, following her as she ducked into a side street.

“Darcy!” he called out, to the back of her head. She stopped, and he saw her shoulders slump, her body shifting as she struggled for breath.

“Wow, duck and cover with a baby bump is way more difficult than I thought it would be,” she said, turning. His eyes glanced down to her round stomach. It wasn’t huge, but it was still obvious.

He took a step closer.

“Before you ask, and before I start doing any Jerry Springer impersonations, yes it’s yours. Apparently the pill only works when you’re not sleeping with a super soldier.”

Steve glanced up to her face, and she was looking pretty flustered. Her eyes were big, too, bigger than usual, and she looked scared. Looked apprehensive. Looked like she was still ready to run away from him.

He said, slowly, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Darcy swallowed her nervousness, took a breath before replying. “I – I knew you weren’t ready for kids. You’d said so yourself. I didn’t want to pull the rug out from under everything, or make you feel like you had to stop whatever it was you were doing to help me.”

Steve was taken aback. She was prepared to go it alone just so it wouldn’t inconvenience him? That was a huge thing to do. His silence must have scared her, so Darcy, in true fashion, let her mouth run on.

“I mean, I could have had an abortion but I didn’t want to, and then this opportunity came up and it was perfect, I could leave without having to make you feel like you had any obligation and I was totally prepared to do this, but now you’re here and I don’t know what else to say and I don’t know what you’re thinking and Jane still doesn’t know either and I can’t tell anybody that I’m carrying Captain America’s offspring because HYDRA might kidnap me.”

Steve was still trying to make sense of it all and Darcy’s words threw him a little more than he would have liked. “You – you’re insane,” he said.

Darcy laughed, sharp and loud. “I was already way off the deep end before this, trust me.”

He couldn’t help but smile and then he was laughing, and she was laughing too. And then the tension was gone, and there was no animosity, no nervousness, and Steve wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t upset. He was alarmed, but he wasn’t angry. He was amazed. It was the best news he’d heard for a long while.

“This is unbelievable,” he said, stepping in so he could brush the hair back from her face, so he could properly look into her bright blues behind her black rimmed glasses. “You’re pregnant.”

“Yep. You can, uh – you can still opt out, if you want,” she said, and he paused. Darcy went on. “I mean, the situation is still the same, right? You’ve gotta fight bad guys, do your thing. I still won’t hold you to it. It’s not your responsibility.”

Steve shook his head. “I want to help. If I had known, I would have been on board with it from day one. I know I’m not ready for this and you probably aren’t either, but I’ve never backed away from a challenge and I sure as hell ain’t about to start now, sweetheart.”

This time, Darcy was silent, her mouth open as she stared at him from behind her glasses.

He pressed his palm gently to her cheek and said, “Come back to New York with me. I’ll take care of you.”

“But – my job, Maria will kill me,” she began, but Steve cut her off.

“Screw that. They know you can’t work for much longer anyway. You can let me take care of you, let me cook for you and do your cleaning and your laundry, I’ll paint your goddamn nails if you want me to,” he said, and the smile that split across Darcy’s face was beautiful. “If you don’t want my help that’s okay, but I want to be a part of this. I’ve made some pretty stupid decisions in the past but I know this one is right.”

Darcy smiled brightly and then she grabbed the collar of Steve’s shirt and pulled his mouth down to hers. He felt his heart jump, and he let his fingers slip into her hair, sighing happily as he reacquainted himself with her lips – but she suddenly pulled back, shocked and horrified at what she’d just done.

“I’m sorry, I just – got so excited –”

“Shhh.” Steve took her back and kissed her again, kissed her like they hadn’t broken up and spent months apart, kissed her with abandon. When her stomach bumped against his belt buckle, she laughed.

“I think there’s something between us,” he said, grinning, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

“Lame,” she said, but smiled nonetheless. She took Steve’s hand from her neck and pulled it to her stomach, and he let his palm graze over the smooth swell of her belly.

“Bun in the oven, huh,” he said.

“Uh, yeah. Buns.”

Steve blinked. “What?”

“You got some strong swimmers there, Rogers,” she said. “I’m having twins.”

Steve’s elation and surprise resulted in a fit of laughter and more kissing which Darcy was more than happy to accommodate.

They walked hand-in-hand back to Darcy’s apartment where Steve began to pack her things, insisting that she sit her pretty ass down and give him directions. She laughed at him but did as she was told, and by the end of the day, half of her belongings were good to go. Steve threw in the towel when she pulled him down to sit beside her on the couch, and he curled his body around hers, his arms draped over her stomach, tracing circles into her skin through her shirt, and they watched the six o’clock news like that, like nothing had changed.


	2. The Big Reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [lovingyou13 ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lovingyou13)and [Resplendent](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Resplendent) both suggested baby reactions on all fronts so here goes! thank you for everybody who has given me some incredible prompts + ideas, they've all been added to the drawing board and hopefully I'll get through them all! the possibilities are endless... you're all wonderful :) thanks so much.
> 
> expect kisses and cuddles and all that.

They told Jane first because she's Darcy's best friend, and they were going to be working together again, and if Darcy didn't tell her first she'd be in a whole heap of trouble.

Steve said it might be worth telling her before she came around, so she didn't get shocked like he did, to which Darcy replied, "But where's the fun in that?" and asked Jane over for coffee. Steve rolled his eyes, but he also stayed to watch.

Jane's eyes were the size of the moon when she saw Darcy, and Darcy laughed as the tiny woman began to frantically jump around and grasped onto Darcy's arms and then hugged her tightly, saying, "Oh my god, this is incredible! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"It was under wraps," said Darcy, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders to stop her from bouncing up and down. "Settle, woman!"

"I will not settle! This is the most exciting thing to happen since New Mexico!"

"Are you saying that my pregnancy rates as high as discovering the bifrost?" asked Darcy, raising her eyebrow.

"This rates so much higher the bifrost, Darcy," said Jane dramatically, taking Darcy's face between her hands before pulling her back in for a tight hug. 

Darcy laughed, almost out of breath from the tightness of Jane's hug. She'd been spending too much time with Thor. "Wow, that exciting, huh?"

* * *

Thor found out next, only because Jane was really terrible at keeping secrets. He appeared on their balcony and knocked at the window with a huge grin on his face, before entering to lock arms with Steve, clapping his other hand on his shoulder. 

"Congratulations, my friend!" he said, loud voice filling the room. "Jane told me the good news."

"She moves fast for a small woman," said Steve jokingly. 

"Mouth runs pretty fast, too," said Darcy, coming in from the other room after hearing Thor's voice. Thor smiled at her, moving to gently place his big arms around her.

"She could hardly keep such wonderful news to herself," he said. "This is a very special occasion. I know that you and Steve will both make excellent parents."

Steve smiled at the praise and saw Darcy's smile grow wider, too. And Thor got a surprise when Steve mentioned "babies" as plural. Apparently Jane hadn't told him the whole story. He then asked if he could try to feel them, and he laughed when they began to shift under his big hands. 

* * *

After making sure that Thor and Jane didn't tell anybody else (because Steve wanted to tell each of their friends one by one, so Darcy didn't get swamped), Steve picked up his phone.

" _Hey, Steve, how are ya?_ "

"Hey Bucky," said Steve, leaning against the couch. Darcy glanced at him from the sofa and gave him a smile, and he smiled back. "Pretty good, yourself?"

" _Day off today, can hardly go wrong_ ," replied Bucky.  _  
_

"Then maybe you'd like to come over to my place," said Steve. "My girl's back in town."

" _Darcy_?"

"That's the one. I caught up with her in Seattle."

" _You guys patched things up_?"

"More than that. We've got a surprise. Starts with a 'p' and ends in 'regnancy'."

Bucky was on his bike and at their apartment in record time, and just about broke one of Steve's ribs for hugging him so tightly. He was hollering like an idiot, like he used to when their team won baseball, and he pulled Darcy in close and said animatedly, "Doll, you are gonna be the best mama these kids could ask for. And you, my friend," he said, grabbing Steve by the collar to pull him in close, too, "You are gonna be the best dad, too."

Steve remembered the way Bucky had taken him in when he needed a family. He was the closest thing Steve had to a brother, so he said, "And you're gonna be the best uncle in the world, Buck."

Bucky's grin lit up the room as he said, "Does James Buchanan Junior sound good to you guys?"

* * *

They got the next few down with what Darcy called a "tactical announcement". Steve called up Sam, Natasha and Clint and asked them to report to his office at Stark Tower ASAP. Clint got there first to find Darcy reclining in Steve's chair, with Steve leaning against the desk. 

"Operation Twins is go," Darcy said, giggling at his expression. He slightly stumbled over to them and a gradual smile appeared, the shock falling away as he took it all in.

"Wow," he said, "Congratulations, guys. Mean trick, though, abusing your status as Captain to round us up."

Steve shrugged, not caring in the slightest.

"Twins, huh? Can't do anything by half measures, this guy," he said to Darcy, who laughed as he embraced her, giving her a friendly kiss on the cheek. "Good work, kid. You're gonna make good parents."

Natasha and Sam arrived quickly after and while Natasha simply raised her eyebrow with a smirk, giving Steve a knowing look, Sam got excited like a kid and started asking questions about everything, wanted to know every tiny detail.

"How far along? Boys or girls or one of each? Oh, gonna wait to find out when they arrive? Designed the room yet? Got names? Need a babysitter? Not for Darcy, I mean like for the babies, when they get here - I know it's ages away but Steve, I have four younger siblings and I babysat my way through high school, you can ask any of my neighbours -"

Steve entertained him, barely able to keep a straight face as Sam's eyes constantly darted back to Darcy's stomach. Natasha sat on the desk next to Darcy and as they talked about cravings and yoga and organised to go shopping, Clint sat on the floor beside Darcy's chair and began to design child-sized bows on a spare piece of paper.

* * *

They dropped past the lab after that. Jane wasn't there, but they found Bruce. The quiet man was so busy staring into a microscope and writing in his lab book that it took him a while to figure out what was going on. He glanced up to smile at a joke that Steve had made, and then did a double take. 

"Whoa," he said. "Darcy, you're back in town. And - you're pregnant."

"Observant as ever, Dr. Banner," she said, giving him a smile. 

"Wow, that's wonderful," he said, "Congratulations, guys." He shook Steve's hand and looked like he was about to shake Darcy's too, when he remembered his social etiquette and instead held it between the two of his, patting her hand softly. "Is this why we haven't seen you around here?"

"Yeah. We - I wasn't sure what was going to happen, so Maria found me a job out west," she explained. "But once Steve knew, he assured me nothing could go wrong."

"He's right, you know," said Bruce, glancing at his friend and smiling. "Even though this is a tough world to bring kids into, if you weren't here and somebody knew you had Captain America's kid, it could get messy. Here, you've got half a dozen crazy people and a few spare to look after you, no matter what. Best security team ever."

Darcy laughed at that. "Yeah, I know. This is the best place for me to be. For us." She looked to see Steve's happy-resting-face and she knew that Bruce was right. There was no other place as safe for her and their kids. "Also, I'm having twins, so that's exciting."

"Twins?!" said Bruce, in a softly-voiced-exclamation. "Holy crap." He stared down at her belly. "That's gonna be big."

Steve laughed, cracking up at the doctor's reaction. Bruce was so gentle and honest and surprised that it was pathetic and cute all at once.

* * *

Tony and Pepper were away, so they called up Pepper on camera to chat to them. Her voice went all high-pitched and she got extremely excited.

"Better settle down there, Pepper, you might mess up your perfect, perfect hair," said Darcy.

" _I think baby news is worth messing up my hair for_ ," said Pepper. " _How far along are you?_ "

"Uh, just over four months. I've been back in New York almost a week."

" _And Steve is taking care of you_?"

"Of course," said Darcy, tapping him under the chin. "He's being very good to me."

"Only doing what I can to make it easier," said Steve. "Though she keeps trying to get back to the lab."

" _No working unless there's a medic on site_ ," said Pepper quickly. 

Darcy laughed. "I  _knew_ you were going to say that!"

Pepper smiled. " _Gotta take care of my girls, don't I? If you need a new chair or extra coffee breaks or anything, just let the guys at resources know, and tell them it's going through me_."

"Shall do," said Darcy, giving a little salute. 

Tony wasn't with her but Pepper said she would tell him when she got the chance, and the next day a card and a small music box arrived in the post from Pepper, and the music box played a lullaby that was so sweet it almost made Darcy cry.

* * *

Darcy had actually gotten herself back to work by the end of the following week, and was helping Jane crunch numbers in the lab when the doors slid open and Tony walked in.

"I feel a little hurt, Darce, I had to find out from Jarvis that you were in the family way," he said as he sauntered into their lab. Jane laughed and Darcy rolled her eyes as he ducked down to press a kiss to her cheek and slap a file down on her table.

"What's this, then?"

"These are some basic sketches for toys that I'm going to design. Y'know, birthday presents and whatnot."

"Tony, the twins aren't going to be needing remote control drones until they're early teens."

"You'd be surprised, I had a lot of fun with them as a six year old."

Darcy smiled, taking his hand in hers and patting it gently. "I'm sorry you had to find out from your computer. I thought Pepper had told you."

"She got caught up in a business deal and had to go to Norway. I'm not offended, I'm just hurt. I expect one of them to be named after me," he said, swiping a doughnut from her desk as he sauntered back out the way he came in.

"Even if they're both girls?"

" _Especially_ if they're both girls."

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Dreaming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but sweet. Again, if you get any ideas, lemme know :)

Darcy groaned and turned to her other side. She couldn’t sleep. Apart from the obvious factor, she also wasn’t used to sleeping in such a big bed, and she was worried.

Being worried wasn’t good for pregnant ladies, she reminded herself. And Steve is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. But she worried nonetheless. This was only the second time he’d been gone since she had returned to New York, and he hadn’t wanted to leave her. But Darcy told him that if he didn’t go, he’d only serve to piss off Maria and Natasha, and she wasn’t about to incur their wrath.

“Get it over with and come back to me in one piece,” she told him, and he’d kissed her long and slow before picking his shield up and walking out the door in that beautiful navy-blue suit that made his ass look like it had been carved by angels.

Hate to see him leave, but love to watch him go.

Darcy smiled to herself as she pulled the sheets closer, and she asked Jarvis nicely to put on some relaxing music, something she could fall asleep to. She woke up every now and then, when her bladder began to complain or when one of the twins decided it was party time in mama’s belly, but she dozed back off.

Her dream was strange. Steve was introducing her to his parents, even though his parents were dead and she didn’t know who they were, or what they looked like. They were telling them the good news, having afternoon tea, eating apple crumble…

Darcy woke up when the bed shifted and a strong arm wrapped around her, and a warm mouth pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

“Hey,” she said, tiredly, voice barely there.

“Hi,” Steve replied, nosing her hair out of the way so he could press his face to her neck. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“S’alright,” she replied, wriggling back to get closer to him. “Missed you.”

“Missed you too.”

“I had a dream about your parents,” she said, with a yawn, falling back to sleep. “What were their names?”

Steve was quiet for a moment before he replied. “Sarah,” he said. “And Joseph.”

“They were nice to me. I like them.”

Darcy didn’t remember falling asleep again but she remembered how warm he felt against her and the way her mind and her belly settled down when he was lying with her.


	4. Uncle Bucky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyyyyy whatup. Bucky is a champ. send me your pregnant Darcy prompts <3

Steve got ridiculously excited at the kicking. The sides of him that Darcy had known before – the strong, confident Captain, or the kind-hearted, thoughtful man, or the smooth-talking, wink-and-grin player that she had taken a shine to – these were out the window. He lacked all of the grace, the maturity and composure of his former self when it came to the babies and it was absolutely adorable.

“Darcy! Darcy, I can feel them kicking!”

“I know, sweetheart. I can too.”

“They’re so energetic today. What did you eat?”

“Toast. With peanut butter.”

Darcy was lying on the couch with a book, and Steve was all but in her lap with his hands stuck to her stomach, occasionally resting his head gently against her bump to press his ear there.

“They ain’t gonna talk to you, handsome,” said Darcy, teasing him.

“I can hear rumbling.”

“That’s probably my stomach. Growing two humans is hungry work.”

“Want anything?” he asked, and she glanced over her book to see him looking at her. He was so cute it was almost painful.

Darcy smiled. “No, it’s alright. I’ll wait til Bucky gets here. I’d hate to ruin my lunch.”

Bucky arrived not long after that. He was so well adjusted these days that Darcy didn’t even think he was the same person. Darcy knew he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t all the way there yet, but he was doing really well and he hadn’t relapsed for almost two years now, which was incredible.

Not to mention he was cheeky, childish and he could still make girls swoon by winking at them.

He collected Darcy into his arms as soon as he walked in the door, completely ignoring Steve. Since learning that she was going to be the mother of his best friend’s children, Bucky had been even more protective of Darcy than he had been before, and he told her stories about how feisty and annoying Steve was as a kid and how she had all that to look forward to.

“Hey, handsome,” she said, as he planted a kiss on her cheek. “How you doing?”

“Pretty good. Look at you, you’re getting bigger every time I see you,” he said, leaning down to kiss her belly. “Hello, babies!”

Steve crossed his arms. “Y’know, Darce, I think Bucky’s more excited about me being a dad than I am.”

Bucky grinned. “Not likely.” He pulled Steve into a rough hug, and Steve couldn’t help the grin that split his face. “I’ve seen what you’re like.”

“You should’ve seen his face when he felt them kicking this morning,” said Darcy, wandering back into the kitchen.

“I can imagine,” replied Bucky. “I didn’t know what we were doing but I brought some stuff, just in case.”

Bucky had supplied bread and juice from the deli down the road, and lunch consisted of DIY club sandwiches. Steve and Bucky talked about work and baseball and babies, and after they had finally finished lunch, and they were sitting back on the couch with coffee and cookies (also courtesy of Bucky), Steve glanced and Darcy and she nodded. Now was as good a time as any.

“So, Bucky,” said Steve, “Darcy and I were talking the other day about these kids.”

“We kind of figured they’re going to have a real weird life no matter what, and that it’ll get rocky from time to time,” said Darcy, her hand grazing over the bump as one of them shifted. Steve put his hand over hers. 

“Basically, since both our parents are gone and Darcy doesn’t have much family here in New York, we’re going to have to try and make our own little family here,” Steve said. “And you’re the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have.”

“You know I’ll always be here for you guys,” said Bucky, giving them a trademark grin.

“We know,” said Darcy. “Which is why we figured Uncle Bucky’s gonna be the best godfather that these kids could ask for.”

Bucky took a moment to register that information, but when his face lit up like a Christmas tree, Darcy knew it had sunk in.

And when he jumped off the couch collected Steve in a bear hug so hard that they fell onto the floor, Darcy was laughing so hard it hurt.


	5. No Matter What

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got to thinking about some people I know who have it bad, and some of my family members who haven't had much luck with kids. And I figured that every parent has their own anxieties when it comes to their kids, and I wanted to show that side of Steve.   
> If you got ideas about pregnant Darcy and daddy Steve, leave em in the comments :)

Steve was excited to be a father. He hadn’t seriously considered the prospect before but now it was a reality, he wanted to be the best dad to his kids and the best support for Darcy that he could be. He didn’t want to let her down, and he wanted to give his all to give her and the twins.

He didn’t tell her about his fears for a long time. He knew that it wasn’t about him, it was about her, and he didn’t want her to begin to doubt or worry. But when they went in for a check-up at the medical ward, she could see that he was anxious.

“What’s going on?” she asked, as they sat in the waiting room.

“Nothing,” Steve said, and winced when he realised he’d spoken too fast. He glanced up to see Darcy’s raised eyebrow and he sighed. “I just – I want everything to be okay.”

“It will be okay,” said Darcy, calm and confident. Steve wished he could be that sure.

“I know,” he said. “I know that you’re okay. But I don’t know if – if the medicine that helped me stop being sick will have worked on them.”

Darcy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Before I was – this,” he said, indicating towards his body, “I wasn’t in good shape. I had every illness and ailment under the sun, I had asthma and heart palpitations, high blood pressure, anaemia, I got scarlet fever, and I had the flu or a cold every other week. I wasn’t a healthy kid, Darce. I was sick, badly sick, most of my life. I don’t – I don’t know if what our kids got from me was the old sick Rogers, or the new one.”

Darcy was quiet for a minute before she took Steve’s big hand in hers and said, “It’s a scary thought, but it’s not just us that have this problem. Even if you had been perfectly healthy all your life, there’s still a possibility that one or both of our kids will have asthma, or diabetes, or a backwards heart, or a mind that doesn’t work right. They could have autism or they could be blind or have a brain tumour. And there ain’t all that much we can do about it, apart from hope for the best and know that no matter what happens, we’re going to do our best by our kids and give them the best chance at life we can. And trust me when I tell you that modern medicine is incredible. Something that might have killed a baby fifty years ago wouldn’t make anybody blink today. We have to believe that it will be alright.”

Steve stared at her in disbelief. She was so calm, so level-headed, talking about disease and disability. “I’m sorry,” he said, lacing his fingers with hers.

She shook her head. “No need to apologise, handsome. Every parent has their doubts. It’s okay to be worried.”

“You’re incredible,” he said, moving to kiss her cheek gently. “I’m lucky to have you. I’m going to try to be optimistic. Makes no sense to be worried about something you can’t fix.”

The small smile she made after he kissed her made his heart swell. “Good,” she said. “And we’ll be okay, no matter what.”


	6. Not A Tourist Attraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angry Darcy gives me life. hope y'all enjoy :) send me your prompts for pregnant Darcy and daddy Steve

Darcy didn't react well to being touched. She wasn't a touchy-feely sort of person. The only people who were allowed to violate her personal space were Steve, Jane, Bucky and occasionally Thor, only because there was no deterring Thor from a hug. Their small circle of friends had become a little more hands-on since she was pregnant, but that was okay because she knew and trusted them. With strangers, Darcy liked to keep her distance.

But having a baby bump meant that every person and their dog were allowed to touch her, apparently. This wasn't something Darcy had been told about, and she wasn't prepared for it. The first time it had happened in Seattle she'd almost backslapped an old woman at the supermarket. And to be honest, her reaction hadn't improved much since then.

She had gone out to get lunch with Jane, and they were walking down the street when a young couple came up to her and asked excitedly if they could feel her stomach. Darcy gave them a short, sharp, "No," and sent them packing with slightly disappointed looks on their faces.

Jane pulled a face at her and Darcy sighed. "Don't give me that! If they wanted to feel a pregnant woman's stomach they should get procreating. I'm not a tourist attraction."

"They're just excited about the prospect of new life."

"And I'm excited about hitting the next person who tries to touch me. At least those two asked nicely, I'll give them that."

They made their way to their favourite cafe and sat down outside. It was a beautiful sunny day, and Darcy had almost settled in when an older woman passing by came over to congratulate her and placed a hand on Darcy's stomach, only to have it swatted away.

The woman blinked and took a step back when Darcy glowered at her. Jane apologised quickly, saying, "Sorry, my friend's had a long day."

As the stranger walked off, Darcy sighed. "If you're going to apologise to them, at least be honest. Say something like, my friend doesn't appreciate having her personal space violated by strangers with dirty hands."

"She had clean hands."

"Not the point," Darcy replied, pointing her teaspoon at her best friend. "No person is allowed to put their hands on me unless we're at least acquainted."

They finished their lunch in relative peace and quiet, and then headed towards the shops where Darcy almost decked a man in the elevator for patting her stomach. By the time they got home, Darcy was flustered and Steve raised an eyebrow as she stormed through the apartment to find her pyjamas.

"Tummy troubles?" he asked.

Jane nodded. "It was bad. Knuckle dusters were mentioned."

Steve smiled and stood to go through to their bedroom and soothe his aggravated girlfriend. 


	7. The Fame Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [JustJill](http://archiveofourown.org/users/JustJill) suggested being seen together in public/paparazzi, which is an awesome prompt. In case you missed it, chapter two is different to before! I wrote a reactions chapter based on a few prompts and stuck it in the middle there, so if you missed that go back and check it out :)  
>  thanks for reading and thanks again for the amazing ideas!

The first time it happened, they were at the supermarket together. Darcy had gone off her usual favourite food and currently only felt like eating custard, so they had to go find something she could actually eat for a meal. As they were walking out the front door to get back to their car, Steve saw the flash out of the corner of his eye. 

"Aw, hell," he said.

"What?"

"Cameras."

Darcy's face went white and then she swallowed the lump in her throat as they began to put the shopping in the back of their car. "Well. We knew it was going to happen at some stage."

"Good thing you got dressed up," he said, glancing at her jeans and sweater combination. She hit him with a bag of carrots before throwing them into the car, and Steve laughed at her, giving her a kiss before they got in and drove away. 

They were expecting to see their faces all over the internet when they got home, but instead they found pictures of Stark Tower. Tony had recently installed a message board at street level, and the message from that afternoon read, "CAPTAIN AMERICA IS PROCREATING, TELL YOUR FRIENDS" _,_ and the paparazzi who had snapped their pictures was told that it was old news. Darcy laughed, and Steve was glad to see smiles instead of tears. They both knew the world was going to find out eventually. At least they had their friends to keep them all down to earth. 


	8. Still Beautiful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [stillwaitingforthatdance](http://stillwaitingforthatdance.tumblr.com) said stretch marks and [JustJill](http://archiveofourown.org/users/JustJill) also suggested Darcy feeling huge. so here goes! thanks for all the wonderful responses, I'm so glad you guys are liking it :) this is just Steve being a giant cute piece of shit. I'm not even sorry. Thanks for reading!

She stared at her reflection and sighed. 

Darcy used to like their cupboards with the sliding mirrors, because it saved space on the wall for other things, like photographs and paintings. And mirror sex was totally a thing. Might have been involved in the actual impregnation process, but that stuff is difficult to pinpoint.

Regardless of how useful it was for anything else, it meant that half the wall was a mirror and every time she came out of the shower she had to look at herself. She didn't mind the shape of the belly, and it bothered her that she couldn't wear her old sweaters and her favourite jeans or skirts anymore. But the way it looked underneath was far worse.

She hadn't liked her stretch marks when she was fifteen her boobs had a growth spurt. The boobs looked great, but the skin was pale and there were awful, awful lines that came down on her chest and on the underside, too. They'd just about faded by the time she actually started having sex, but she spent every summer for three years wearing shirts at the beach or at the pool, saying that she was too pale for the sun, instead of showing her skin. 

And now, she thought, staring sadly at the mirror as she traced a fingernail over a particularly bad stretch mark... now it's worse. The stretch marks on her breasts had been slim and white and barely there, and she'd freaked out over those. These stretch marks were an ugly pink, they were wide and gaping things that looked like scars and the skin rippled under her touch. It felt so thin she was afraid it would break. It looked like she was infected with something. She hated it. She didn't want to get any bigger but she knew she was just over halfway there and it was only going to get worse. 

She sighed and threw on an enormous sweatshirt and pulled her pyjama pants on. She wasn't going out today. She was going to stay home and watch David Attenborough documentaries. 

Steve got home early. The meeting he was supposed to have was postponed so he came home, bringing Darcy a caramel latte from the cafe down the road she used to frequent on the way to work. She didn't much anymore because fighting to get in the door was ten times harder when your stomach is the size of a small planet.

"Hey gorgeous," he said, ducking down to kiss her cheek and handing her the coffee. "How was your day?"

Darcy made a downtrodden mumbling noise around her mouthful of latte. Steve raised an eyebrow before he sat down next to her.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," she said. 

"Is this about your jeans not fitting? Because that's not your fault, sweetheart."

"No, it's yours," she said, gently slapping his arm. He smiled at her and she smiled back for a moment before it fell away. She really was very tired and fed up with being pregnant. 

She fixed her eyes back on the TV as Steve drew patterns on her arm. "Is it the stretch marks?"

Darcy stared at him, blinking. "How -?"

"I'm an observant guy, Darce. You spent a solid ten minutes staring at them after you shower," he said softly, taking her hand in his to press kisses there, his lips grazing over the back of her hand. "You know that they don't make you any less beautiful, right?"

"They look like a jaguar tried to claw its way into my stomach, Steve," she said, feeling her breathing go shaky as all the built up anger and sadness and self-consciousness came over her like a wave. "I just - I hate the way it looks, I'm sick of applying a tonne of lotion to it every night, I'm sick of it -"

When her words got lost in her choked-up throat, Steve pulled her in close and let her tears soak into his shirt, and kissed her hair as she cried in his arms. He ran his hand up and down her back until her breathing returned to normal. 

"I'm sorry," she said, sniffing, checking his shirt to make sure she hadn't snotted all over it. "I'm being stupid."

"It's okay," he replied. "It's perfectly okay. And understandable. It's unfair on you. You have to put up with the worst parts of this pregnancy deal. But the marks will go away with time and I will kiss them every single night if it makes you feel better about them. Because you're still as beautiful now as you ever were, or ever will be."

Darcy nodded, but Steve tipped her chin up gently and made her agree with him. "Okay?"

"Okay," she said, a smile cracking through her tears. "Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry for crying on you."

He kissed her softly. "That's alright, gorgeous. Tell you what, I'll get Pepper to find us some better lotion, if you want. Some of that clinically proven stuff. Or whatever. If you think it will help."

She settled back into his chest, head on his shoulder, and replied, "Only if you apply it. I want your hands all over me, Rogers. Even when I'm weeping and talking nonsense."

She felt the laugh move through his stomach and chest. "That can be arranged."

They stayed there until Darcy fell asleep watching Rise of the Vertebrates, and when they went to sleep she was muttering something about how it would have been so much easier to lay an egg. Steve tucked the blankets up to her chin and kissed her goodnight.


	9. Security Measures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a great prompt and I totally had to do it! Thanks a heap to [Resplendent](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Resplendent) for this amazing idea:  
> Natasha doing something or installing something outside their rooms to protect the babies and getting caught by Steve and or Clint.
> 
> YAS good. Black Widow on the case. And Clint being useless and/or helpful, depending on how you look at it. Enjoy!

"Hand me the screwdriver, Clint. The other one."

"They're the same!"

"Not the same, and stop arguing."

Steve frowned as he heard the voices, and he turned the corner to find Natasha sitting on Clint's shoulders. Clint had a toolbox in hand and Natasha had nails between her teeth, and her hands on the wall above Steve and Darcy's apartment door, attaching some strange contraption there.

Steve cleared his throat, and the two assassins turned to stare at him, both of them looking like deer in headlights. "What are you two doing?"

"I'm stopping Natasha from doing stuff without your permission," said Clint.  

Steve raised his eyebrows, staring at the redhead seated on his shoulders. "And what a fine job you're doing."

Clint shrugged and Natasha kicked him. "Stop moving," she muttered, before taking the nails out of her mouth and screwing them into the hole in the wall. She had a cordless drill tucked into her belt, and there was some sort of silver device being screwed into the wall above the door.

"What is that?" asked Steve, stepping closer to stare at it. 

"Security device," she replied bluntly.

"Dare I ask what it does?"

Natasha glanced at him. "Probably not."

"Am I allowed inside my apartment?"

"Oh yeah, you're fine," she said, as though it were obvious. "It'll help keep you and Darcy and the kids safe. You trust me, right?" She gave him her trademark sly smile and Steve sighed. 

"Yeah, sure," he said, opening the door and going inside. "Clean up whatever mess you make."

He found out what it actually did when one of Stark's new employees came to find Steve, and was shot with a tranquiliser. Steve made her take it down, and Natasha had pouted. She'd been really pleased to find out it was working so well.


End file.
